Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani and Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke brought Blue Lives Matter to the forefront of the convention with two fiery speeches that prioritized police officers over the lives of those they’re supposed to protect and serve.

Clarke, who recently told CNN host Don Lemon that [“anti-police rhetoric”] (http://www.cnn.com/2016/07/18/us/wisconsin-sheriff-david-clarke-i-predicted-this/) has led to an uptick in violence against police officers, continued these sentiments during the convention.

He began his speech by saying, “Ladies and gentlemen, I would like to make something very clear: Blue lives matter.” His opening remarks garnered much applause from the audience. Then, he pivoted to the theme of his speech, making "America safe again," by highlighting how he thinks the Black Lives Matter movement contributed to the recent ambushes of officers in Baton Rouge and Dallas, Texas.

“What we witnessed in Ferguson, in Baltimore, and in Baton Rouge was a collapse of social order,” Clarke said. “So many of the actions of the Occupy movement and Black Lives Matter transcend peaceful protest, and violates the code of conduct we rely on. American law enforcement officers understand that race is and has been a heated issue in our country. Most appreciate the vital need for thoroughness and transparency in pursuit of the greater good in their actions, and in their investigations.”

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Rudy continued this line of thought in his speech: “The vast majority of Americans today do not feel safe,” he began. “They fear for their children and they fear for themselves. They fear for our police officers who are being targeted.”

While the high-profile shootings of police in Dallas and Baton Rouge are tragic and inexcusable, statistics actually show that there has been a significant decrease overall in the number of ambush attacks on police officers, Seth Stoughton, a former officer and law professor at the University of South Carolina, noted in 2015 to NPR.

The FBI’s Uniform Crime Report found that since 2000, 791 police officers have been purposefully — or feloniously — killed. As Vox reports, 40 and 70 police officers have been killed feloniously yearly, over the last 20 years, with not much change in those numbers.

On the other hand, [police have killed 596 people] (http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2015/jun/01/the-counted-police-killings-us-database) so far in 2016. To call for accountability when people of color, like Alton Sterling and Philando Castile are killed by police, is not inherently anti-police. Instead, it’s a call for justice.